We’re constantly bombarded by messages that we should seize the day, live life to the fullest, and that we can do and be absolutely anything that we want. It’s either empowering or emotionally exhausting depending on your point of view. One of the problems that lie at the core of this ‘go-gettism’ philosophy is that there often isn’t much guidance behind the energetic urging to not waste a single moment more and embrace an adrenaline-filled, happy-go-lucky lifestyle.
That means that it’s up to every single person to try and figure out what they really want to do, whether it’s professionally or during their spare time. And that can lead to some very naive mistakes. Maybe you realized that bungee jumping really isn’t for you. Perhaps you learned the hard way that camping isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be if you don’t have a tiny Aragorn living inside your heart. Or maybe you got burned after trusting your colleagues too much.
Reddit users opened up about their worst experiences and mistakes in a brutally honest thread full of worldly wisdom. Scroll down for the anti-bucket list of things that people will never ever do again.
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Work in a covid unit. It was worth it in the beginning when I felt like I was trying to rescue victims of an unknown enemy while risking my life to buy precious time for a game-changing miracle. However, parts of me have died over the last two years. The patients that come into my ER now days have turned up their noses at a vaccine that many have died in my presence waiting for. The ones dying of covid are shouting at me, hitting me, threatening me, and trying to pull the PPE off of my face because they don't think that covid is real. I've had to drive past protesters on my way home from a shift where I had to take an eight year old off of life support because her unvaccinated parents gave the virus to her. I don't even feel sad anymore when a patient passes because now I have a ventilator open for at least one of the next three patients circling the drain.
I'm tired of getting yelled at by antivaxers and their families. I'm tired of risking my life for people who won't do the bare minimum, like taking a jab, to live.
I've spent my life trying to help people, but no one is worth it anymore. You win. I'm done. I regret it all. Everything I ever stood for is dead. The only thing that matters to me is my dog. She will never understand why I never came home, but she has widespread cancer, so that won't be long either.
Facebook. Deleted the account, never going back. I don’t miss it at all.
Vote Republican. I was a lifelong R until they picked Trump. My eyes were opened to what they were and I'll never donate another cent or vote R for any position ever again. I love when I get the calls from them, begging for money. I get to explain why the money they used to get is now going to their opponents.
I've decided as long as there are starving children and pets in this world, no political party is getting a cent of my money.
The anti-bucket list is the complete opposite of the bucket list, a list of all the things that a person hopes to do in life.
They say that the best teacher is cold, hard experience. And there’s no denying that trying out a whole bunch of different activities can quickly help you filter out what you actually enjoy doing and what sounds great on paper but is horrible in real life.
However, things aren’t so easy when you deal with underlying assumptions like trusting everyone, not just leisure activities. If the fundamental ideas that make up your life get shaken, you can be in for a rude awakening. And with a lot to think about while you’re sitting there, angry, ashamed, embarrassed.
Buy clothes that don’t fit well in hopes that “someday” I’ll lose weight and be comfortable in them. Just size up, damn it, and be comfortable now!
Settling for a relationship knowing you are not really happy.
Never. Again.
Attempt [to end my life].
After maybe three of four days after the attempt I experienced what I think is called epiphany. Started everything all over. Loved myself, finished therapy etc. No matter what bulls**t life throws at me I will never do it again.
Something that we all have to remind ourselves of from time to time is that it’s all right to make mistakes. Nobody’s perfect. And, heck, you could argue that perfection is overrated. What really matters is learning to embrace the mistakes that we make and learning the lessons that are there to be learned, without regret.
Vanessa Bohns, an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University, explained to us earlier about embracing mistakes, dealing with our embarrassment, and why hiding our mistakes isn’t healthy for us.
"We spend a lot of time and effort presenting an ideal version of ourselves to other people. When something happens that contrasts with the image we’ve been projecting—when we say or do something that shows we actually aren’t as graceful or as smart as we’d like people to believe—we feel embarrassed," Vanessa told Bored Panda during an earlier interview that many of us want to seem perfect.
Give a f**k about other people’s opinions of me. Not my business.
Now I always pee before cutting jalapeno peppers. The other way around, never again.
Apparently a mistake only done once. (Careful around your eyes…)
Assume that every co worker is a friend.
I truly believed most of my colleagues were friends in a place I used too work, to the point I’d go above and beyond to help them. Even if it was rarely if ever reciprocated. Yet whenever I needed help they were nowhere to be found or were ‘busy’. If I got in trouble they were quick to throw me under the bus without hesitation and would lie to my face about doing so.
I thought some of my co workers were friends and even invited them to my engagement party. They did RSVP yet none of them showed up.
"Discovering you were wrong about something most everyone else around you has long known to be true is one of those moments. In that moment we learn, 'Wait a minute, maybe I haven’t been presenting the image of being smart or worldly that I thought I was presenting all this time,' which is embarrassing,” she explained how embarrassment works.
“One thing that’s interesting about embarrassment is that, for as much as we might experience it as painful in the moment, it’s actually very socially adaptive. Being embarrassed signals to other people that you care about what they think. And that actually draws people in to you,” the expert pointed out that when we admit to our mistakes openly, we become better liked.
I refuse to ever do retail again, people are literally such a**holes and don’t realize your trying to help them and still get their job done.
But…. Everyone should work in retail or food services for a while. To appreciate the crap work and how vital it is. And to appreciate where you’ve been and where you’re going.
Smoke. Did it for 14 years. I feel so much better having quit. Been about 10 years since and the amount of money saved and the smell and the cough.
I used to smoke. Not chain smoke but smoke I did. I quit many years ago and will NEVER be a smoker again. The lungs are better, smell, taste and health. Jeeees, there is not a single positive thing to say about smoking.
Good for you! Pat yourself on the back, it's not easy, or so I hear. My husband of 58 years is a smoker and he is literally dying in front of my eyes. Right now we are sitting on the couch and he has oxygen hooked up to his nose. When he is done with that, he will head out to the porch for a cigarette. It is so sad to watch our lives turn into this. Thankfully I never took up the habit or we would both be sick.
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Ditto. i doubt i'll ever start again, but there have been times when i've even dreamed of it and woken up with such a craving
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I smoked for 13 years. Started really young and it grew into a two pack a day habit. Really, it was the cost that became prohibitive and I needed to be put on birth control to manage heavy periods as they were making me anemic each month. Other forms of birth control messed my system up, but my Dr. wouldn't prescribe the pill if I was smoking. So, I set a goal to quit and with the money I saved I'd buy a puppy after a year. Six years later I have two dog (brothers) and an entirely repainted house. You do not realize just how yellow EVERYTHING is. Had to wash everything and every surface, but it's been worth it. The only thing I miss about smoking is that kick of relaxation the first drag of a cig when you're stressed gives you. Nothing quite like it. Puppies still better though.
My bio dad smoked his entire adult life and started when he was around 12, several packs a day, he would get the next cig going with the cherry from the one he was about to put out, nonstop from the minute he woke, before even getting up, until his last one at night while laying in bed, even had one lit in his fingers while he ate dinner, so gross
I miss smoking. I smoked for about 10 years, quit when I got pregnant with my oldest - now 16 - I miss it SO much! The taste, the smell, the instant anxiety relief... Alas, I know how unhealthy it is and I won't go back, but if I could and avoid the consequences, I would in a second.
I quit 8 years ago and have never looked back. I cringe when I think about the people I must have offended with the odor. No more holes in my clothes, no more counting the minutes until I can sneak my next smoke. I have COPD now and a small benign nodule on my left lung that has to be monitored, so I'm paying for it. But it could have been much worse.
100% I smoked from 16 to 30. I quit cold turkey and never looked back. My boyfriend still smokes... I wish I could accurately convey to him just how better it gets!
Heavy smoker for 14 years. Quit so many times, so many ways. Cold turkey, hypnotism, patch, nicotine gum, vape. What an insidious habit. So glad I can breathe freely now and not worry daily about lung cancer.
Way to go Liz! You should be very proud of yourself!
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tbh I don't miss smoking. It's been over a year since a 10 year struggle. I find myself managing my stress better and lost weight (ironically - that being smoking was known to suppresses hunger, that's not always the case though). I like that I can smell better too. haha
You lost weight??? Lucky you. I gained and had an a$$ the size of Texas. Now have lost it, well... most of it and the rest will come off naturally when working in garden and stuff. I'm so glad the winter is over. phew.
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I am do glad I never started. I watched it destroy my dad. He finally stopped but it was too late. It hasn't killed him yet but he has only about 1/4 of his lung capacity and can't even make it from one end of the house or up stairs with out stopping to catch his breath. Yesterday I was told he has pneumonia. It is a very real threat to his life because of this.
Gave up before I got pregnant after my mother died of lung cancer from smoking. Remember: you're not giving up anything; you're gaining better health and wealth...
Yes!!! The money wasted on cigarettes can be used in a worthwhile way that will improve your life instead of destroying it.
I think that the final thing that made my husband stop smoking was doing the maths and finding out that it cost £3000 a year. I think that it would be well over £6000 now with the cost of cigarettes having increased.
Yes!!! What is it you really want?? A baby? Stop smoking to be able to give your child a better life. A home? Save all that cig money for a down payment. A better car? Save that cig money to either fix urge car you have or to make payments on a new one. No matter what, quitting such an expensive habit will give you a whole lot of 'found' money!
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Smoked for 50+ years, yellow teeth, orange fingers, holes on my shirt fronts, spitting phlegm, smokers cough, hair smelling like an ashtray. No spare cash. Great to not smoke but I now have COPD to remember it by.
A little sh!tty souvenir. I'm sorry Bob but at least you quit.
Load More Replies... Gave up smoking and still want to smoke again every single day. Stopped 2 years ago. Complete hell.
Ex-smoker of 6yrs and I’m going to smoke again once I’m in my eighties, so will my husband. Because nothing has killed us as yet! 🤭
I'm still surprised people are still into smoking. Gross. Good thing you quit.
The worst thing about smoking is the desire still pops up decades later after quitting! It's infuriating! I haven't given in but sometimes it would be so easy to simply start again 😔
Why would anyone ever even pick up a cigarette, ever? Like ever? It's absolutely disgusting, expensive, it stinks and beyond unhealthy. Where is the appeal?
I smoked for 15 years, ive been clean two months now ill never go back. It feels so good to be free. That Quitsure app really helped me do it if any smoker reading this wanted to know how I did it. It wasnt enough to want it for me lol I needed help but thats ok.
Yes, this.⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️ I was a smoker for 23 years. I couldn't/wouldn't quit. Then I got pregnant at 38. The thought of smoking while pregnant repulsed me. The thought of quitting only while pregnant, then taking it up again after the birth baffled me. And going outside to smoke, while leaving my newborn baby alone in the house, horrified me. I used an accelerated patch program the second day of my pregnancy, (highest dose for 2 days, medium dose for 2 days and lowest dose for 3 days, with my Dr's ok) On the 8th day, I took the patch off and waited for the cravings, and.... Nothing! I was fine. No cravings! It was a miracle! I have been quit since January 8th, 2014. I tell my kids I used to smoke and how much I regret it and the only thing that made me quit was their health and wellbeing. I will never smoke again as the thought of smoking and being a hypocrite to my kids just makes me die a little inside. Plus I'm an older mom, (46)I want to be around for my kids for a long time!
And FYI anyone who says quitting while pregnant is dangerous, is wrong. There are many studies showing it is better to quit than to continue smoking while pregnant. Quiting is safer than bathingthat baby in toxic chemicals for 9 months and then having that baby deal with withdrawal after being born is selfish, cruel and abusive to the baby.
Load More Replies...Having sex without wanting to. I was in a relationship with someone who'd frequently pressure me into having sex, and I'm definitely never ever doing that again.
Same. I'm stilling getting over the trauma. It just never feels right again.
“So blushing, burying your head in your hands, laughing, acknowledging how embarrassing something was, are all totally healthy ways to react.”
On the flip side, when we try to hide our mistakes and embarrassment, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot, socially speaking. In other words, it’s not only cathartic, it’s also socially useful for us to admit to the times we utterly embarrassed ourselves or messed up beyond all belief.
Work as a bartender.
I know, I know, the money is good. But getting home at 4am or later, the booze and drug scene, surviving on Red Bull and pedialyte, and getting grabassed by strangers while trying to pay my bills is not the life for me.
787 days sober and I’ll never look back. Got my degree and working as a design specialist/content developer for a museum now and I LOVE MY JOB. Also started my own small business and it’s going really well so far. I have an art show coming up soon and I’m really excited for it.
Stay at a job I’m unhappy at.
I've been gruelling at a job that hasn't fit my values and personality for a decade. I have an interview at a place I've always wanted to work at this week. Hope I get it.
Trying to be liked by everybody by always being nice and never saying no. Never again.
“The unhealthy way to react is to pretend you’re not embarrassed, that you didn’t make a mistake, or to get angry. Those things undo the positive effect of embarrassment typically has on other people by conveying insincerity and pushing people away rather than drawing them in,” Vanessa said.
Sharing too much.
I used to tell people my life goals and plans, and upload everything on social media as well: what I was doing, who I was dating or in a relationship with, where I was... all that.
Now I realise there is so much more peace and happiness in living a low-key life. I high-key enjoy that s**t.
Camping. Never again will I leave my perfectly comfortable house for a weekend to sleep on the ground and share a disgusting bathroom with 150 strangers.
Loan a friend money with the expectation of getting it back. Haven’t loaned money since and if I ever do, it’s a gift.
I’m aware that this might come across as slightly arsey, but I’ve stopped loaning anything at all. (Ie not money, but books, CDs, clothes, household items, etc.) I’ve grown tired of being the one who keeps pushing to get my stuff back, and then, when I do finally get it back, it’s usually in a pretty bad condition.
Being obese.
I didn’t realize how much it negatively affected everything in my life until I lost 80 pounds. Then I was like “oh THIS is how I’m supposed to feel.”
Go to Disneyland or Disney World.
Paid waaaaay too much money to stand in waaaay too many lines, fighting crowds of waaaay too many people.
Disney parks are not a fun way to spend a day.
i went to hershey park a few years ago with my family. i havent been to disneyland/world, but they have a lot of the same things, less long lines, and CHOCOLATE
Forgive a cheater.
If it happened once, it can happen again. Also, it happened for a reason, maybe they wouldn't admit it or you wouldn't believe it but something was the precursor.
Bungee jump.. as soon as my feet left the edge all I could think was "well that was stupid"...
It was exciting and probably safe enough.. but it was enough for me to know I will never willingly do that again.
Childbirth and the postpartum period. Love my daughter to death. One and done.
Yep. I had my daughter and went through so much anxiety and was told it wasn't real that I did not have another child even though I wanted one. I just couldn't imagine going through that again. Now people talk about it more so I would be able to get help but 19 yrs ago doctors got frustrated if you complained about anything to do w mental health after pregnancy. Plus I was afraid they'd take her from me if they knew how axioms I was. To the point I held her for a year straight. I couldn't put her down I was so scared. I would sleep for a few hours a night as long as my husband held her while I slept.
Allow my mood to get tethered to someone else's.
With my ex, I was only ever happy when she was happy and if she woke up in a bad mood, my day was ruined. I need to live my own life without clinging onto someone else's.
Ah, emotional vampires. My mom is like this. I'm not allowed my own feelings. Every emotion she dictates. Now I don't know if I'm a strong empath or just can't deflect others emotions.
Working in academia - left two years ago and never looking back. F**k that noise.
Soon as the business folk became in charge of the institution instead of the professors, it was all over. Changing the model from " how can we best teach and research knowledge" to "how can we make more money to expand" destroyed the core philosophy.
This is already coming back to bite us in the collective behind. Never before have I encountered so many bachelor degrees with high hopes, high work ethos and just very little knowledge of anything other than their very insular topics.
Have a relationship with someone with children, thus finding myself in the stepfamily situation with never fully feeling accepted, the ex being omnipresent, and always being the one to adjust because… those poor children. And it’s true: they cannot help their situation. But I aint doing it ever again.
Pulling an all nighter. Age is catching up on me.
Attempted to pull a late night this weekend for the sake of having a social life and ended up going home early the next day to take a nap. I think I'm officially old now.
Birthing without an epidural. I had laughing gas instead. Made me high as a kite. I screamed in pain while I was dissociating into space.
Pregnant woman in the Netherlands here. There is now ay in hell I wouldn't want to choose giving birth without the epidural... Why to choose suffering? Hell nah, if I can, I will chose the less painful option to havea beautiful birth experience, hell with "it not natural" who cares? Also wearing shoes is not natural 😂 but hey... My respects to all women who choose to feel what our ancestors did before we had a painless option... Not for me!
Go to a strip club. I've never felt so awkward in my entire life.
I went once in my early 20s. Got a lap dance. Felt like a third wheel the whole time, like she was TRYING to give my wallet a lapdance and I was in the way.
Note: this post originally had 95 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
For the most part these are NOT bucket list things people tried and didn't like. FFS whose bucket list includes working retail, being in a bad relationship, having a child with someone they don't love. Come on this is just a list, predominantly, of bad experiences with bad things.
Exactly, it’s not things on peoples’ bucket lists that they don’t want to do again, it’s things that are now on the anti-bucket list of “I’ll never do this again in my life”. No one has “working retail” on their bucket list, but I bet a lot of people have it on the anti-bucket list after having tried it.
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This list sucks. It isn't even vaguely an "anti-bucket list". Why can't people at least try to post ideas that fit the theme, rather than jump on an opportunity to rant about something vaguely related.
I thought the idea of “anti-bucket list” was “this wasn’t on my bucket list before, but I’m never going to do it again”. It’s not things that were on the bucket list already and then turned out to be horrible, it’s somewhat normal things that they don’t want to do again. They’re two separate lists, not things from one moved to the other.
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i'm going to say it....having a child. i have one who is now 42 but, in retrospect, i would not have had him. it's a long story that i won't get into but it was a situation in which i could not choose to abort or adopt out. had i been able to do either i think my life would have been different. but, that being said, i will say that the experience did benefit me as i think it made me a better person. i don't know if that's a 'making lemonade out of lemons' attitude or not but after one i was done.
Thank you. I have 3. I felt pressured into having them even though I didn't want them and wasn't ready. I love my children, but parenting isn't really for me and they didn't deserve to be born into this world.
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Snorkeling. Did it once at a camp, hyperventilated and got back in the boat as fast as possible. Everything looked so much closer, slimier, more alive, and much better at swimming than me, and since it was below me, I couldn’t run away except by swimming to somewhere else with new horrors. At one point I nearly kicked a sea turtle that I had no idea was there. The worst part is I then had to go out again with the group the next day and they wouldn’t let me just stay in the boat. I am absolutely never going anywhere in the ocean with clear water ever again. Too many nightmares. I’ll stick to aquariums with walls, thanks.
Thank you for this actual anti-bucket list thing.
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For me, ride a roller coaster. I'll do other adrenaline inducing things, like cliff-dive or do the polar-bear-challenge, I just never had any desire whatsoever to ride a coaster as a kid. As a teen, someone begged me to ride one with them, and after a lot of back and forth, I finally gave in. I ended up getting severe whiplash, and didn't even enjoy the ride prior to the injury. It just seemed bumpy and uncomfortable, and not at all exciting. 30 years later, and I tend to throw out my shoulder a lot. I couldn't swear the whip lash is what caused my shoulder to get so screwed up, but that's around the same time it started.
I thought I was the only one who was bored by rollercoasters etc! People expect it's just that you are scared, but I would rather do something like rock climbing.
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Once I jumped off a cliff into a lake. I did not enjoy it at all.
Getting married again. One and done. Thank god I can spend the rest of my life with my current husband. We both agree we agree should have eloped. Ceremony + reception, so stressful.
Being friends with certain people who either used me as their personal therapist or refused to take no for an answer when he asked me out
Hitting my 8 year old computer in frustration while it was trying to boot. The next thing I hear is a faint error sound. It had been reading from the disk. Thank good I had backups of most of it, but my Minecraft worlds will forever be gone. Were it not for my stupidity, I would still be using my old laptop today.
I keep getting calls telling me to pay off my student loans, and the people calling are glad to help me. This is a little bit strange, because I am 75 years old, and I paid off all my student loans some 40 years ago. However when I feel the money people on the phone that, they won't listen. They just keep trying to get my money.
Would have been better if these were actual bucket list things people did that just weren't worth it, or at least sounded like actual bucket list experiences to someone.
For the most part these are NOT bucket list things people tried and didn't like. FFS whose bucket list includes working retail, being in a bad relationship, having a child with someone they don't love. Come on this is just a list, predominantly, of bad experiences with bad things.
Exactly, it’s not things on peoples’ bucket lists that they don’t want to do again, it’s things that are now on the anti-bucket list of “I’ll never do this again in my life”. No one has “working retail” on their bucket list, but I bet a lot of people have it on the anti-bucket list after having tried it.
Load More Replies... This list sucks. It isn't even vaguely an "anti-bucket list". Why can't people at least try to post ideas that fit the theme, rather than jump on an opportunity to rant about something vaguely related.
I thought the idea of “anti-bucket list” was “this wasn’t on my bucket list before, but I’m never going to do it again”. It’s not things that were on the bucket list already and then turned out to be horrible, it’s somewhat normal things that they don’t want to do again. They’re two separate lists, not things from one moved to the other.
Load More Replies... i'm going to say it....having a child. i have one who is now 42 but, in retrospect, i would not have had him. it's a long story that i won't get into but it was a situation in which i could not choose to abort or adopt out. had i been able to do either i think my life would have been different. but, that being said, i will say that the experience did benefit me as i think it made me a better person. i don't know if that's a 'making lemonade out of lemons' attitude or not but after one i was done.
Thank you. I have 3. I felt pressured into having them even though I didn't want them and wasn't ready. I love my children, but parenting isn't really for me and they didn't deserve to be born into this world.
Load More Replies... Snorkeling. Did it once at a camp, hyperventilated and got back in the boat as fast as possible. Everything looked so much closer, slimier, more alive, and much better at swimming than me, and since it was below me, I couldn’t run away except by swimming to somewhere else with new horrors. At one point I nearly kicked a sea turtle that I had no idea was there. The worst part is I then had to go out again with the group the next day and they wouldn’t let me just stay in the boat. I am absolutely never going anywhere in the ocean with clear water ever again. Too many nightmares. I’ll stick to aquariums with walls, thanks.
Thank you for this actual anti-bucket list thing.
Load More Replies... For me, ride a roller coaster. I'll do other adrenaline inducing things, like cliff-dive or do the polar-bear-challenge, I just never had any desire whatsoever to ride a coaster as a kid. As a teen, someone begged me to ride one with them, and after a lot of back and forth, I finally gave in. I ended up getting severe whiplash, and didn't even enjoy the ride prior to the injury. It just seemed bumpy and uncomfortable, and not at all exciting. 30 years later, and I tend to throw out my shoulder a lot. I couldn't swear the whip lash is what caused my shoulder to get so screwed up, but that's around the same time it started.
I thought I was the only one who was bored by rollercoasters etc! People expect it's just that you are scared, but I would rather do something like rock climbing.
Load More Replies... Once I jumped off a cliff into a lake. I did not enjoy it at all.
Getting married again. One and done. Thank god I can spend the rest of my life with my current husband. We both agree we agree should have eloped. Ceremony + reception, so stressful.
Being friends with certain people who either used me as their personal therapist or refused to take no for an answer when he asked me out
Hitting my 8 year old computer in frustration while it was trying to boot. The next thing I hear is a faint error sound. It had been reading from the disk. Thank good I had backups of most of it, but my Minecraft worlds will forever be gone. Were it not for my stupidity, I would still be using my old laptop today.
I keep getting calls telling me to pay off my student loans, and the people calling are glad to help me. This is a little bit strange, because I am 75 years old, and I paid off all my student loans some 40 years ago. However when I feel the money people on the phone that, they won't listen. They just keep trying to get my money.
Would have been better if these were actual bucket list things people did that just weren't worth it, or at least sounded like actual bucket list experiences to someone.
